I'm making some progress on this. It's going to be somewhat maze-like; an inspiration I'm taking from the dungeons in TESII Daggerfall. It's going to be many different cells which will be very small. Since this is Smoke Hole Cave, I want to include some steam spouts in the lower depths where there is water. South of the exterior entrance is the ocean shore which can account for the water being in the cave in different areas. The deepest and hardest area to reach (requiring levitation and water breathing) will be where Sload were once living (or possibly still are).
The screenshot is very crude but I already have 6 separate cells linked to the main one.

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PC_i2-15 screenshot

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

Good idea (although... you're not the first to do it..., but I don't see why it's necessary to have 6 cells. The interior I linked to uses one cell for the labyrinth part and creates additional confusion by covering everything with a huge plane of blacksquares. That should serve as a major source of inspiration for you. If I finish my ShotN claim soon enough, you may want to take a look at that too, since it's going to be fairly similar.

Scamp wrote:Good idea (although... you're not the first to do it..., but I don't see why it's necessary to have 6 cells. The interior I linked to uses one cell for the labyrinth part and creates additional confusion by covering everything with a huge plane of blacksquares. That should serve as a major source of inspiration for you. If I finish my ShotN claim soon enough, you may want to take a look at that too, since it's going to be fairly similar.

Yes, I'd like to check out yours. What claim is it?
Are we allowed to cover the entire cell with black squares? I've thought about doing that but I know there are people who would bitch and complain that the minimap is rendered useless. Sometimes it won't help any ways because my cave designs are more vertical than horizontal, so using the minimap doesn't really help.
I like Andres Indoril's idea. I was doing something like that a long time ago for a showcase for SHOTN, which wound up being just an experimental wip. The ideas I had for that are ideas I want to use for the Labyrinthian for SHotN. I've never liked TESV's interpretation of it, ever. I'll post my labyrinth wip on SHOTN in a little bit just for ideas.

The vision I have for Smoke Hole Cave is one door leads to a small cell, which has a few other doors, and one of those doors leads to another cell with other doors, etc... until you finally get to the Sloads' lair. I won't make it too ridiculous but the purpose of having tons of different cells is obviously to mislead the player. Some will lead to treasure, some will lead to nothing, some will lead you in circles, and one will lead you to the Sload. Since the Sload are very magical, especially in mysticism, I want to make a couple areas, or maybe the Sload lair, require mark and recall. There's a trick I've been wanting to use with the wall pieces for a while now. You know how they are transparent on one side. I'm thinking of a hallway where you can see the exit at the end which leads to the lair, and when you get into the lair, if you turn back around, you'll see there is a wall right where you just came out of. It's putting a wall in front of the cave entrance basically. This is done magically by the Sload, who know other forms of magic that most Tamrielians do not. I would put some kind of warning like tons of corpses in plain sight and a note or something on the ground that warns the player to "be skilled in teleportation like the Sload, for there is no escaping these depths." or something like that.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

No uploaded versions of my claim currently even resemble a maze-like structure, I thought that was clear from what I said.

Usually you would not cover the cell with black squares, but obviously there's no issue with it if the purpose of the interior is to confuse the player (i.e. the purpose is to render the minimap useless...).

I want to use some of the PC_Furn_Col_Barr and PC_In_Col_Barr pieces for the Sload lair. Is it okay if I mix in these pieces with the gold coast tile sets? They look pretty good mixed in with the GC rock tile sets since most of the col_barr pieces are cobbled rocks but I want to check with you if it's appropriate. I may not use them as I'm picturing the sload living in very watery areas of this cave. Their coral kingdom of Thras sounds like their are privy to ocean-related flora. So I'm picturing lots of moss, vines, fungus and plants growing down here. I'll be sure to let you know what flora I'm adding when the time comes. Since the Sload are magical by nature, I don't see why there couldn't be exceptions to awkward and out-of-place occurrences and objects in Smoke Hole cave. Let me know your thoughts.

Also, what wooden planks are we to use to indicate that explorers have been here? We have our own set of planks for the mines at SHotN but I don't see any for P:C, at least not in Statics.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

Damn, I'm not sure what keyword I was searching for then. I think I was tired when I was looking for them. I like those docks with the moss or barnacles (whatever) growing on the posts. Perhaps I may use a couple of those.
Just stuff like this. I may not use it. The Sload who came to Smoke Hole Cave dug (magically) their tunnels deep and convoluted in here so they could securely hide their treasures from Tamriels and other Sload from Thras. I don't think they would bother building stone cobbles into the walls. But since this is my interior, I can make up any story I want for it, as long as it makes sense. I suppose if a few Sload lived down here long enough, they'd put some effort into the architecture of the lower depths, granted that it served in their interest. Any ways, it looks fine to me but if you'd rather I not use those pieces then I won't. It wouldn't be all over the place, just in a certain area.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

Sloadic architecture seems to consist entirely out of (magically?) shaped coral back on Thras. Most sources on them state that they are incapable of producing their own kinds of art, cannot read or write, and that their slug-like hands are incapable of holding tools. They can, however, order their necromantic slaves to build something for them, and they are more likely to ape other styles of building then devise their own. Sload are also attracted to the burial grounds of other races, as they can use their contents as raw materials for their slaves - I could imagine them digging their way into a sealed tomb, for example.

Infragris wrote:Sloadic architecture seems to consist entirely out of (magically?) shaped coral back on Thras. Most sources on them state that they are incapable of producing their own kinds of art, cannot read or write, and that their slug-like hands are incapable of holding tools. They can, however, order their necromantic slaves to build something for them, and they are more likely to ape other styles of building then devise their own. Sload are also attracted to the burial grounds of other races, as they can use their contents as raw materials for their slaves - I could imagine them digging their way into a sealed tomb, for example.

I've also read that their pod hands mold onto whatever they grasp. Do Sload float and move well in water since they're so fat and blubbery?
I forgot about their necromantic affinity for tombs. Thanks for reminding me. Necromantic slaves, eh? Might be a good idea to add a few undead zombies in the lower depths. Thanks for the ideas. I'll keep this thread updated periodically. Any other ideas are certainly welcome.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

I've been having modders block for a while now. You guys have any ideas of what goes into making a great and fun cave to explore? Obviously one in which you don't get stuck on the edges (but that's mostly due to the horrific player bounding box). This is the main entrance area so far. I try to not make my caves look and feel so square and be more organic. I also like mazes.
Any ideas? What do you find exciting when going into caves?

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

I think it is important that our caves don't end up too moddy and difficult to traverse. NPCs should be able to get around most parts or there should be at least a number of npc-friendly areas in them, because enemies are a big part of the fun about caves. I also think that your caves, specifically, should retain a certain minimum of lightness, even if it is not realistic, simply due to the fact that you are not able to appreciate the complexity decoration, if you walk through a ass-huge cave only seeing what is 1-2 meters in front of your hands (this is with a torch) for a long time.

I'm not sure. Honestly, when I walk through some of our caves at SHOTN, a few of them are interesting just for their complexity like Scamps caves, while others rely on loot and enemies to offer the player something of interest. At the end it matters that it isn't just dull tunels and that you combine imagination with a little bit of commonsense. Interesting loot is another factor that you should take into account. I think this aspect is usually underattended in our two projects here.

Yeah, I'm in the minority with wanting dark lighting. The caves shouldn't be too dark for the general public. I'll try using the INVISIO collision boxes in some areas to help with walking.
Someone yesterday on IRC suggested inspiration from the caves in the Dawnguard DLC. I just started the Dawnguard quest for the first time so I'll see what he was talking about.
I tried to find a completed cave here at PC and I couldn't find one.

Interesting loot is not used enough here and SHOTN? What would you consider interesting loot, though?
This being a Sload cave, I'd like to make the loot very unique and interesting.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."

I prefer caves being darker than vanilla myself, as torches appear to be pointless otherwise. I have been using a lighting mod that darkens all caves in the game in every past mw installation, I had. But I think that an almost completely black lighting makes the cave look ugly ingame. You only get to see the odd closeup-details instead of the far-better overall picture.

Interesting loot is not used enough here and SHOTN?

I'm only speaking for myself so far. My caves were thoroughly detailled, I think, but I haven't spent very much thought on possible loot. I have the impression that we are mostly concerned with the aesthetic aspects and making a cave imaginative in terms of layout, details, etc.

Am I holding this project back from progressing by clinging to this claim with very little to no progress being made?
Not that it's on purpose. My space bar is broken so it is hard to type on this laptop and it makes modding very difficult. Plus I'm frustrated with looking for a new job. (real life stuff like that). It's hard for ideas to come when you're all tensed up.

"If one is to understand the arcane arts, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic narrow view of the Mages Guild."